Cummings on Brexit Doubts, Boris Coup and a New Political Party (Maybe)
Guido presents the highlights from Dom’s primetime BBC 2 interview with Laura Kuenssberg last night. The overwhelming consensus from the punditry is he came across as a smug narcissist:
Tom Newton-Dunn: “Cummings’ narcissism craft-fully exposed. Suspect he will deeply regret doing it.”
Harry Cole: “Feels like Pizza Express Woking levels of “was this a good idea, guys”?”
Julia Hartley-Brewer: “Dominic Cummings thinks he’s done an explosive interview that will rock the Establishment à la Princess Diana with Martin Bashir, when actually it’s closer to Prince Andrew on Newsnight… He’ll regret this in the morning.”
Jonathan Reilley: “Dominic Cummings spends best part of ten minutes explaining how he has undue influence over the PM. Then spends ten minutes complaining that Carrie Johnson has undue influence over the PM.”
Chris Hope: “Dominic Cummings will surely regret this interview.”
Tim Montgomerie: “Dom Cummings has an ego even bigger than his blogposts.”
David Quantic: “Dominic Cummings is like a bass player who thinks people will prefer his solo records to the singer’s.”
Then again, we know what Dom thinks of political commentators’ opinions…
Interview highlight timestamp guide:
00:00 – On Boris
00:12 – On his reputation
00:19 – On saving the queen
00:43 – On Boris’s “real boss”
00:58 – On delaying lockdown
01:24 – On Brexit
01:41 – On ‘£350 million a week’
01:54 – On the 2016 leadership election
02:43 – On tactics like prorogation
03:10 – On MPs like the ERG
03:15 – On Carrie
03:31 – On forcing Boris out
04:22 – On the potential of a new party
04:53 – On the last time he spoke with Boris
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Dominic Cummings
Laura Kuenssberg